Govt to launch interest subvention scheme for home loans soon: Hardeep Puri

Puri said that in a first of its kind, the army, navy, and air force will be coming together with civilians to clean up various garbage-vulnerable places.

The government is in the process of finalising the details of the interest subvention scheme and will launch it soon, Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said on September 29.

“We are in the process of finalising the details of a new home subvention scheme. As the Prime Minister has said that it will be a major scheme, which will provide some form of interest subvention. We will come up with the final details of the scheme soon,” he told reporters.

India is considering spending 600 billion rupees ($7.2 billion) to provide subsidised loans for small urban housing over the next five years, a recent report by Reuters had said. Banks are likely to roll out the scheme in a couple of months, ahead of key state elections later this year and general elections due in mid-2024, the report stated.

During his Independence Day speech, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced the scheme for middle-class families residing in rented accommodation, chawls or tenements and illegal colonies in cities.

“The weaker sections living in cities face a lot of problems. Middle-class families are dreaming of buying their own houses. We are coming up with a new scheme in the coming years that will benefit those families that live in cities but are in rented houses, slums, chawls and unauthorised colonies. If they want to build their own houses, we will assist them with relief in interest rates and loans from banks that will help them save lakhs of rupees,” Modi had said.

The housing ministry is implementing the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana or PMAY (Urban), which was launched in 2015. Three of the four verticals of the scheme—beneficiary-led construction, affordable housing in partnership and in-situ slum redevelopment—have been extended till December 31, 2024. The fourth vertical—credit-linked subsidy scheme—under which beneficiaries were given an interest subsidy on home loans—was not extended beyond March 31, 2022.

According to the ministry, around 1.18 crore houses have been sanctioned under PMAY(Urban) till July 31 this year, out of which 76.02 lakh have been delivered to the beneficiaries.

Puri on September 29 also said that more than 6.4 lakh sites have been adopted across the country as part of a nationwide cleanliness drive on October 1 responding to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's appeal for "one hour of shramdaan for swachhata".

The government scheme has now become a “peoples’ movement,” Puri said.

He said the mega drive aims to clean garbage vulnerable points, railway tracks and stations, airports and surrounding areas, water bodies, ghats, slums, market spaces, places of worship and tourist spots among others.

Puri said that to facilitate the swachhata events, urban local bodies, towns, gram panchayats, and different ministries have added events for "swachhata shramdaan" on the Swachhata Hi Seva citizens portal. NGOs, market associations, Self Help Groups (SHGs), faith groups, trade bodies, private sector and others have come forward to do shramdaan in 22,000 market areas, 10,000 water bodies, nearly 7,000 bus stands/toll plazas, nearly 1,000 gaushalas, nearly 300 zoos and wildlife areas, and various locations that will have mega cleanliness drives in rural and urban India.

Puri said that in a first of its kind, the army, navy, and air force will be coming together with civilians to clean up various garbage-vulnerable places, railway tracks, heritage buildings, step-wells and forts.

The HUA ministry said among the states, Uttar Pradesh has adopted more than one lakh sites for cleanliness drives while Maharashtra will be conducting cleanliness drives in over 62,000 locations with citizens joining the shramdaan at beaches, religious places, schools, colleges and water bodies among others.

The ministry noted that various associations have come forward to clean museums, monuments and forts across the nation. Organizations like FICCI, CII, CREDAI, NGOs like Sri Sathya Sai Loka Seva, Lions Club, Rotary Club, UNICEF, Aga Khan Foundation, etc. will join the action on October 1.